Which sentence has clear pronoun reference?

Which sentence has clear pronoun reference?

• A. When the students submitted their papers, they praised the teacher.
• B. When the students submitted their papers, the teacher praised them.
• C. The professor reviewed papers and then emailed them to the students.
• D. Each participant submitted their paper on time.

Answer: (B)

The main idea is clear pronoun reference: a pronoun should have a definite antecedent that matches in number and is unambiguous. In the sentence where the student group submits papers and then is praised, the pronoun clearly points back to that same group. “Them” refers unmistakably to “the students”—the people who did the submitting. There’s no other plausible antecedent in that sentence, so the reference is clean and easy to follow. The other sentences start to blur who the pronoun is about. In the first option, the pronoun in the second clause could make a reader pause to confirm who is doing the praising, which can momentarily feel less direct. In the third option, “them” could be read as referring to the papers rather than the students, since the immediate preceding noun is “papers.” The last option uses a singular subject with a plural pronoun (“their”), which is common in modern usage but can feel stylistically less precise to some readers. So the sentence with the unambiguous, clearly linked pronoun is the one where the pronoun directly and transparently refers to the students.

The main idea is clear pronoun reference: a pronoun should have a definite antecedent that matches in number and is unambiguous.

In the sentence where the student group submits papers and then is praised, the pronoun clearly points back to that same group. “Them” refers unmistakably to “the students”—the people who did the submitting. There’s no other plausible antecedent in that sentence, so the reference is clean and easy to follow.

The other sentences start to blur who the pronoun is about. In the first option, the pronoun in the second clause could make a reader pause to confirm who is doing the praising, which can momentarily feel less direct. In the third option, “them” could be read as referring to the papers rather than the students, since the immediate preceding noun is “papers.” The last option uses a singular subject with a plural pronoun (“their”), which is common in modern usage but can feel stylistically less precise to some readers.

So the sentence with the unambiguous, clearly linked pronoun is the one where the pronoun directly and transparently refers to the students.